northland

Over the tracks, north of downtown a part of the city exists that remains mostly obscure to the majority of Tulsans.. There are no destinations that will lead you there.. The following artist statement and images asr part of the work I am developing to be presented in the fall of 2017, in Tulsa.

image (afterimage)

after slavery, after emancipation, after lynchings, after sit in’s, but before we are finished; behold the walls

after Ellis Walker Woods, after Benjamin Harrison Hill, after Clara Luper; but before we are through; behold the walls

This work is dedicated to the terra firma and residents of Greenwood, a site in north Tulsa that once encompassed the location where you now stand. The struggle for equality for the residents and for recognition of this area as a nationally registered historic site continues.

Having survived the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, and Urban Renewal in the 1960’s, Greenwood is now in the throes of gentrification; most of the new development will perpetuate the fragmentation of cultural identity and do little to repair or heal the damage that has filtered into the ground and into the souls of the long-term residents.

In April of 1964, Clara Luper came to Tulsa, to march with local activists and participate in “sit in’s”, protesting discriminatory service and hiring practices at restaurants. Her book, “Behold the Walls”, documents her work as an activist and leader in the civil rights movement during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s in Oklahoma City.

The image of Gordon, painted by Cynthia Brown, is from a photograph taken in the 1860’s. Harpers Weekly published an engraving of this image on July 4th, 1863, under the title “A Typical Negro”, but it had first gained wide-spread notoriety as a carte-de-visite, which was a popular format for photographic prints during that time period.

The “walls” that Clara Luper wrote of exist to this day. They are at once, tangible and divisive, historical and imaginary, inclusive and exclusive.

The images and symbols bound to thesewalls represent aspects of our collective experience, afterimages that are repurposed here to suggest rather than say, to ask rather than to tell.